Ahead of next Wednesday's start to the 2015/16 NBA season, Kevin Jeffers (Eastern Conference) and Jonathan Raymond (Western Conference) will preview each team in the league. Here, a look at the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors in the Atlantic Division.
Boston Celtics
What's Good: The future. This is a team loaded with assets, including Brooklyn's first-round picks for the next three years — in addition to their own — and a lot of decent, price-controlled young players, most intriguing of whom is second-year guard Marcus Smart. Those Brooklyn picks are likely to be in the lottery, so don't rule out general manager Danny Ainge's ability or willingness to use those assets to trade for a star player and put together another title contender very soon. Ainge is a trigger-happy general manager, but a proven team builder.
They added Amir Johnson and traded for Golden State forward David Lee, who while offensively gifted, found himself expendable on a loaded championship team. He’ll bring experience and needed scoring to a young, improving group of players. They also have on their bench perhaps the best young basketball mind in the world in head coach Brad Stevens.
There’s a lot to like here, from Smart to defensive wunderkind Avery Bradley to Isaiah Thomas’s ability to put up 30 on a given night off the bench. It’s weird to say this about the Celtics, but they’re kind of a fun group.
What's Bad: There's no franchise player just yet. Kevin Love was a potential target before rightly staying tied to LeBron James in Cleveland, but he likely wouldn't have been enough to put them over the top anyway.
This is a hard team to pin down because they could look drastically different by season’s end. As they are, the Celtics are right in that tier with the teams that are too talented to tank for a high pick, but not good enough to compete for anything more than a second-round play-off run. This is a demanding, but loyal, fanbase that is used to winning.
Best-case scenario: Ainge cashes in some assets early to land a big enough name mid-season, and the Celtics make some noise in the play-offs.
Worst-case scenario: Brooklyn somehow make the play-offs and the Celtics have one fewer lottery pick than expected.
Brooklyn Nets
What's Good: Re-signing Brook Lopez was an underwhelming but necessary task, and they accomplished that. They also unloaded Deron Williams's albatross contract and got under the luxury-tax threshold. Is that boring? Absolutely. Welcome to the 2015/16 Brooklyn Nets.
What's Bad: Where to start? After gambling on over-priced, over-the-hill stars when they moved from New Jersey a few years ago, the franchise finds itself in a big, empty arena with apathetic fans, no draft picks on the horizon, and no young talent to build around. There's no chance of winning now and no hope gained by tanking.
Best-case scenario: On the court, it's bleak. Off the court, being a millionaire in Brooklyn sounds pretty fun. I'd trade places with Joe Johnson any day.
Worst-case scenario: Whether they make the lottery or the play-offs doesn't really matter. Everything is nothing. This is the Dostoyevsky of NBA teams, which is perhaps fitting for a Russian-owned club.
New York Knicks
What's Good: I still don't know how they traded Tim Hardaway Jr for a first-round pick. That was good!
What's Bad: a lot
Best-case scenario: The No 4 overall pick
Worst-case scenario: The No 4 overall pick
Philadelphia 76ers
What's Good: Their young frontcourt could be really fun to watch, and with time, potentially devastating. Nerlens Noel is an emerging defensive star, and No 3 pick Jahlil Okafor is going to get a lot of opportunities to put up numbers on a very, very bereft-of-talent squad. How Okafor's more-traditional post-up game fits into Noel's improving ability to hit mid-range shots will be something to watch. It could work, or it could slow their scoring to a halt.
What's Bad: They didn't even bother to sign a point guard, so I won't bother attempting to guess who the starter there will be. Winning isn't a priority for this team, anyway. General manager Sam Hinkie is notoriously experimenting with the format of building a club by systematically getting rid of players who threaten to put basketballs in baskets, all in a not-veiled attempt to attain higher draft spots and more assets. This team is not good and has no agenda to be so, at least not this year.
They're still waiting on high draft picks Joel Embiid (injury, Shirley Temples) and Dario Saric (playing in Europe, seeming apathy to play in Philly) to show up. It's tough to blame either of them for not rushing to join this trainwreck. I genuinely feel bad for head coach Brett Brown, who has so little to work with. It's not your fault, Brett. It's not your fault.
Best-case scenario: They finally nab that No 1 pick in the lottery and this team can give its fans something to look forward to.
Worst-case scenario: They make the play-offs against management's will, as backwards as that sounds. But that doesn't seem likely. This is one of the worst teams in the league again.
Toronto Raptors
What's Good: They're the class of what is easily the worst division in the NBA. That's not even enough to guarantee a home play-off series anymore under the league's new seeding format, but it's enough to provide a few easy wins each season.
All told, though, it’s not difficult to imagine an improved team over the last couple of play-off seasons. Kyle Lowry has been the star of the pre-season and they signed DeMarre Carroll away from Atlanta to provide needed three-point shooting and solid defence at small forward. Lowry and DeMar DeRozan comprise one of the league’s best starting backcourts, and they’ll get their share of points.
Making the play-offs is old hat now for the only team in America’s Hat, so this season lives or dies by how they do when they get there. There’s a glimmer of hope here.
What's Bad: The frontcourt is small and not overly talented. They'll be forced to play small ball, a formula that's proven to work, but run the risk of being predictable by doing so. That will matter in the play-offs. Carroll might have to play some power forward, which is not what made him such a valuable commodity to begin with.
They have to really hope Jonas Valanciunus puts it all together – especially on defence – and Patrick Patterson can play a ton of minutes. They lost Amir Johnson and valuable bench scorer Lou Williams, so the starters will be on the court a lot and could run out of gas in the long run.
Best-case scenario: They're on the top of the list of teams good enough to provide some championship hope, but not good enough to realistically be considered title contenders. A top-4 seed is the benchmark and anything short of that and a deep play-off run will be disappointing. A No 2 seed isn't out of the question.
Worst-case scenario: Carroll was a risky signing if only because he cashed in after only one stellar season. And Lowry can be frustratingly inconsistent. There's no real risk of missing the play-offs, but I'd temper expectations for anything better than a second-round exit.